by Weston Farmer
LOA 14' 3", BEAM 5'
Here’s a flat bottom grain-belt yacht—for those lazy fishing days out for sunfish or yellow perch. As easy building as baiting a hook, she features a built-in live well
Out on the sunfish and crappie waters of the Iowa and Minnesota sand lake country, you’ll see hundreds of board-and-slat skiffs pulled up on shore. There’s nothing fancy about these grain-belt yachts. Their claim to fame is their simplicity and economy. They may not be worthy of floor space at a boat show, and you never see one of their kind there, but for quick building, satisfaction in service and long life, they are just the ticket. Anybody who wants to go fishing badly enough can build one. For sitting in the sun over a crappie hole, you can’t beat ‘em. Shorebird here is typical of the type. You cut out a stem, bolt a couple of plain planks to the stem through temporary cleats, spread the planks with a midship mould, and then horse the planks home to the transom with a Spanish windlass. What you’ll have is not a thing of beauty, nor the most perfect of fiat-bottomed models. Nevertheless, it is a boat that you can row fairly well, which will also take a 2 or 3 hp light outboard. Her bottom rockers according to the sweep of her bent topside planking and her dimensions are dictated by lumber available in standard sizes in any local yard. She is heavy enough to weather any average chop. Just remember that as long as the forefoot of a flat-bottomed boat is loaded a little below the waterline, they act like boats. Get them cocked too high and they slam—all of them
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